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Summertime turmoil in credit markets finally caught up with billings at architecture firms. The American Institute of Architects’ Architectural Billings Index (ABI) fell 6.1 points from its near-record high in July for a score of 53.9 in August; the volume of inquiries also tumbled by a similar amount for a score of 60.5. Although these numbers marked the biggest drop since September 2006, when the ABI lost 7.3 points, billings remain healthy since any score over 50 points represents growth. Kermit Baker, the AIA’s chief economist, explained in a press release that while the ABI is compiled using data mainly

A pledge by Harvard University to cap carbon emissions from a new cluster of science buildings, heralded last week, coincided with a bit of green news from the second-oldest Ivy. Yale University announced that Foster + Partners is designing a LEED-certified building to triple the size of its business school.  Harvard’s news comes as part of its six-year-old Green Campus Initiative, which has guided Cooper, Robertson & Partners’ plans for a 341-acre expansion campus into Allston, near its historic home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The university is pledged last week that its new Allston Science Complex will emit no more than

Editor’s note: You may read the news digest below or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchitecturalRecord.com, as a podcast by clicking this link. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download Daniel Libeskind is designing an addition to New York City’s One Madison Avenue, also known as the old Met Life Building, that, at 900 feet, would make it the city’s tallest residential structure, according to a September 20 article in the Israeli publication Globes. The existing complex includes a 700-foot tower designed by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons; completed in 1909, t is modeled

Transbay won’t rise as high as his Petronas Towers in Malaysia, but Cesar Pelli and his firm have won the rights to design what could become the tallest tower in San Francisco. Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, teamed with developer Hines, were awarded exclusive negotiating rights yesterday to a choice site in downtown San Francisco owned by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA), which seeks to rebuild the aging Transbay Terminal facility next door. Image: Courtesy Transbay Joint Powers Authority, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, WRNS Studio, Hines Pelli Clarke Pelli and developer Hines’ scheme for the new Transbay Terminal and skyscraper

Manhattan’s Storefront for Art and Architecture celebrates its 25th birthday this month and the gallery is breaking out hula hoops to celebrate. Over the coming weeks, the non-profit gallery will host a series of public events in “Ring Dome,” a temporary pavilion, designed by Korean architect Minsuk Cho of Seoul-based Mass Studies, made of 1,000 off-the-shelf plastic hoops stuffed with electroluminescent wire. Image: Courtesy Storefront for Art and Architecture The Storefront for Art and Architecture celebrates its 25th birthday this month with “Ring Dome,” a temporary pavilion designed by Korean architect Minsuk Cho of Seoul-based Mass Studies. The sculpture is

Chong Partners Architecture, a San Francisco-based firm with 2006 revenue of $42.4 million and nearly 200 employees, is the latest North American acquisition by Stantec, the publicly-traded Edmonton, Alberta–based engineer-architect. Terms of the transaction, completed yesterday, were not disclosed. “The addition of Chong Partners is a significant step towards building a national architecture presence in the United States similar to what we have been able to achieve in Canada,” Tony Franceschini, Stantec president and CEO, said in a statement. He added that Chong offers significant hospital and health care facility design to Stantec’s capabilities. It also expands the size of

Following his successful sale of Case Study House #21, Chicago’s Modernist-design auctioneer Richard Wright is putting another mid-century residence on the block. But instead of a Pierre Koenig icon, the lot up for grabs on October 7 is an arguably kitschy work by Marcel Breuer. Photos Courtesy Wright and Brian Franczyk Photography) A porch spans the south elevation of the Wolfson house; its design features Marcel Breuer’s trademark cable material. At the request of his client, Breuer incorporated a Spartan Trailer into the house. The trailer’s interior includes a kitchen. The idiosyncratic house, located in Dutchess County, New York, is

Polshek Partnership Architects is spreading the news—literally. The Manhattan-based firm has designed three journalism-related projects featuring design elements that explicitly express the building’s program. Photos: ' Jeff Goldberg/Esto (top); Courtesy Polshek Partnership (above) Designed by Polshek Partnership, the new headquarters for public broadcaster WGBH opens today in Brighton, Massachusetts. An oversized LED screen displays images from the station’s programs; slivers of LED screens punctuate the glazed facade of a long, rectangular volume that connects two other buildings in the three-building complex (top). Newhouse III, a new building for the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, will be